The invention can be applied to all known types of a wheel bearing such as, for example, with fixed outer rings and inner rings which can rotate with respect to the outer rings, with fixed inner rings and outer rings which can rotate with respect to the inner rings, with divided inner or outer rings and with inner or outer rings which form one unit together with a flange.
Such a sealing unit protects the interior of the wheel bearing against environmental influences from the outside. The interior of the wheel bearing is understood to be the roller bodies which are arranged radially between the outer ring and the inner ring, cages for guiding the roller bodies and components of sensor devices for a wheel bearing and, if appropriate, further elements of the bearing which are arranged mainly radially between the inner and outer ring. The roller bodies may be balls or conical rollers.
Such a sealing unit is described in DE 196 447 44 C2. This sealing unit has a cover cap made of sheet metal, an elastic seal on the cover cap and a baffle plate. In this case, the cover cap is pressed, with a hollow cylindrical section, into the outer ring of a wheel bearing in a rotationally fixed fashion. The cover cap extends, via an annular disk section, radially from the section in the direction of the inner ring and of the baffle plate. The baffle plate is securely seated on the inner ring and is provided in one piece with a carrier for a pulse transmitter. The pulse transmitter is seated axially behind the cover cap toward the roller bodies of the radial bearing. A seal attached to the cover plate bears with two annular sealing lips against a step in the baffle plate and provides a seal against the moveable inner ring.